Obama's huge lie crushes all hope

The current political argument about whether President Obama lied to America about the Affordable Care Act made me think of two fairly recent presidential liars.

Richard Milhaus Nixon lied about an insignificant burglary and set off a furor that became the worst scandal in our history up to his time in office. It led to impeachment hearings and the only presidential resignation in our history.

William Jefferson Clinton lied about a sexual liaison that outraged the people so much that, again, impeachment proceedings were begun against a president.

In the great scheme of things, we could agree that lying about a burglary, a minor political sin, should not have caused such an extreme reaction, and actually only affected Nixon and his cohorts. It ruined him for life.

Clinton's lie about his sexual encounter with Miss Lewinski was a failure of personal character that had no effect on the people of the nation outside his immediate family.

The rather venial sins of those two presidents did nothing that harmed the people of the United States in any real way. It was the fact of their lies that so outraged the people that it brought down one president and forever tainted another.

President Obama is accused of lies of a far more egregious nature. His oft-repeated assurances that "If you like your insurance plan, if you like your doctor, you can keep them," are far different than Nixon and Clinton's in that they affect millions of people financially. Nixon and Clinton made no promises; they just acted immorally.

Evidence has now come to light that President Obama and his advisers knew three years ago that his promises were untrue, yet they continued to advance them for political reasons to pass his agenda and get re-elected. Now, with the failure of the rollout on Oct. 1, and the letters informing people that their insurance plans are canceled on Jan. 1, along with huge increases in cost for replacement plans, the depth of the president's prevarication has come home to roost and has the potential of complete ruin for his legacy achievement.

On Nov. 5, the president altered his message with a statement that he had always said that folks could keep their plans only if they had them before the ACA went into effect. With at least 29 occasions, on video of his promise to the contrary, the president is caught in an unequivocal lie. Is it possible that this former professor of constitutional law is unaware that his every word is recorded on audio and video? It can be argued that he was not informed about the certain results of the ACA, but in light of the recent revelations to the contrary, this argument defies credulity.

As a people, we are pretty well inured to the fact that politicians will lie to get elected and to advance their agendas, but hope springs eternal. In this case, hope has been crushed under the weight of lies.

Garey L. Bearden is a resident of Milford.

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Obama's huge lie crushes all hope

The current political argument about whether President Obama lied to America about the Affordable Care Act made me think of two fairly recent presidential liars.